Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Familiar Tim

Everybody knows that Tim Lincecum's 2012 starts have generally meant a loss for the Giants and tonight's 4-1 loss to Arizona is more of the same. He certainly didn't give this one away, more like he was just barely out-pitched, but that makes it 2-9. Not good, but did you know this nasty trend dates back to last year and it stands at 3-14? Yikes!

Speaking of last year, this game must have reminded Timmeh of his 2011 ordeal. Remember, he received the least run support last year in all of baseball. Also, it was a QUALITY START!! Something that used to be a Lincecum standard. Also, he held the snakes to 0-5 with RISP ... that is a very good sign. He wasn't sharp, but he was familiar and that feels good.

The good: Melky's 51st hit in the month!! Absolutely amazing ... the last time anyone got fifty hits in a month was Carl Crawford in August 2007. I don't usually mention the other team much but you have to give some props to the Arizona starter, Ian Kennedy (another beleaguered ace). He completely shut down the hottest hitters in our order. I also have to give credit to snakes' Gerardo Parra; his defense had a big impact on the outcome.

The bad: Some really weak relief pitching by Steve Edlefsen. I can't see him staying much longer ... isn't it time for Heath Embree? Another bad milestone: Brandon Belt has gone 100 AB's without a homer.

Oh yeah, that's the fourth time we have failed to finish off a sweep this year. Does that mean anything?

4 comments:

Edlefsen gave up all ground balls. He's a sinkerballer and this was the first time I've seen him keep all his pitches down and get those grounders. They were hits, but next time they might be DPs.

Hembree dominated A and AA ball (10+ K/9), but so far in AAA he has 12 H, 9 ER, 9 BB and 2 HR in 19 IP (w/ 16 K). I expect we'll see him later in the year.

I miss WillyMo.

Tim looked like Real Tim. Kennedy got the big outs when he had to--he flat out beat the Giants last night. I think the thing to take away was that Tim went seven strong innings and didn't have one of those weird outings where things got away from him. One day he will get Paul Goldschmidt out, I suppose. Otherwise, I was happy to see him look better and be more like Real Tim.

Even when Timmy was good, he still struggled in close pitchers duels with other aces. Often because he would walk a guy, toss a wild pitch. Somehow they would get the runner over to third, and a sac fly. Oops that happened yesterday, only the Sac fly became an unearned run, as the score keeper thought that the runner was just bluffing before Blanco played hot tamale with the baseball. Giants lead the universe in unearned runs given away. With the old Timmy in place we would be right up there with the dodgers.

Kruk kept saying that the ump did not give the low strike last night. I guess he only watched while the giants were pitching, because Kennedy got plenty of low strikes. A few that might have been ball 4, called strikes.